Authors Interviewing Characters: Sarah Mitchell
About LETTERS TO A STRANGER
England, 1940. Dearest Ruby, you must have heard the news by now. The very worst has happened. Our countries are at war. What can I do? How can I stop this nightmare from happening? One day soon we’ll be together again. I swear. I love you. E. x
Present day. Ruby Summers has lived an extraordinary life. Now, at ninety-six years old and living in a quiet countryside retirement home, Ruby may be an elderly lady, but her memory remains perfect.
She remembers the summer in rural Norfolk eighty years ago when she fell in love with Edmondo, and the stolen moments spent in the orchard dreaming of their future. But tears fill her green eyes when she also remembers the September morning they embraced as they listened to war being declared on the wireless. As her village turned against Edmondo and his Italian family, Ruby knew she would be forced to make an impossible choice – one that would lead to a betrayal her heart never recovered from, and an earth-shattering secret she has never shared…
But when lonely Ruby decides to take part in a letter-writing scheme for the elderly, and single mother Cassie replies, she realises this could be her chance. Her last chance. By revisiting her past, can she finally share the secret that has haunted her for all these years? And will her unexpected connection with Cassie unearth truths even Ruby never knew were hidden – or will it tear both their lives apart?
Sarah Mitchell interviews Ruby
April 1940
I take out my notebook and pen and lay them on the table in front of me. Immediately I wish I hadn’t because my interviewee glowers at them before turning her gaze on me. Ruby’s young, beautiful face has an astonishing steeliness and I realise this is going to be harder than I expected.
Me: Thank you for agreeing to see me, Miss Summers. This won’t take long. May I call you Ruby?
Ruby: You can call me what you like. I don’t understand why I’m here. I don’t know anything.
Me: But you do know the Italian boy, Edmondo Brambilla, don’t you, Ruby? You’re at school together and you’ve been stepping out for over a year?
She hesitates, then nods. One minute dip of the chin.
Me: And recently you went away with Edmondo and his family? On a holiday?
Ruby: For two nights that’s all.
Me: To the Suffolk coast? To Felixstowe?
Silence.
Me: What happened, Ruby? Something happened that weekend, didn’t it?
She shakes her head.
Me: Ruby…
Ruby: Nothing happened. I didn’t see anyone.
Me: You saw (I consult my notes), the pipe-cleaner man, didn’t you? That’s how you described him to Mr Whittaker when you had lunch at the Savoy before Easter.
Ruby: He was a musician. I called him the pipe-cleaner man in my diary because he was so tall and thin. He came to the boarding house where we were staying and played the violin with Mr Brambilla.
Me: And what else?
Ruby: Nothing else. That’s all. I already told that to Uncle Charles.
Me: Uncle Charles…I mean Mr Whittaker thinks you didn’t tell him everything.
Ruby: Well, he’s wrong.
She glares at me. Green eyes glittering with defiance. I’m aware that she’s very clever. Brilliant, apparently, particularly at science and mathematics, but she’s also only seventeen. I wait, take the lid off my fountain pen, and slowly begin to write on the next empty page. A minute passes. Perhaps two.
Eventually her gaze dips.
Me (more gently, still writing): Think of your brother, Ruby, fighting in France, risking his life on the battlefields. And thousands of young men – of sons, of brothers – like him, with parents and siblings at home dreading a certain knock at the door. Italy is about to side with Hitler, and we know there are traitors hiding in this country. We must find out about them. It’s our duty – the government’s duty – to shut them away and keep us safe until this ghastly war is over.
Ruby: You can’t lock people up without actual proof that they support Hitler! The Brambillas have lived in our village for years. Edmondo was born here. All their children were born here. They’re one of us!
Me: That’s why we need to see the evidence. To be able to decide who is a danger to us, and who isn’t.
Her head jerks up again.
Ruby: Edmondo isn’t a danger, and neither is his father!
Me: You don’t know that, Ruby.
Ruby: I do! I do know that!
Silence.
Her stare is disconcerting.
I glance at my notepad. All I’ve written down is the date and a list of questions to which I don’t have any answers. The Home Secretary will not be pleased.
I clear my throat.
Me: You mentioned a diary, Ruby? You said a moment ago, I called him the pipe-cleaner man in my diary because he was tall and thin. What other information might we find in your diary? If, say, your mother was to bring your diary into the office while you stay here with me.
There’s a second of complete stillness before her face explodes with emotion. The blaze in her eyes is so intense, so furious, I’m more certain than ever that she’s hiding something, but her expression is such a strange mix of fire and anguish I’m longer sure that something is only about the pipe-cleaner man or even the war.
Before I can say anything else, she’s pushing back her chair, the legs scraping loudly on the concrete.
Me: Ruby, please sit down.
Me: Ruby, sit down!
She shakes her head.
Ruby: I’m leaving. I know you can’t stop me. You don’t have the right. Not unless you arrest me too!
At the door she turns, trembling with courage and determination.
Ruby: I will never tell you the truth about that weekend. You or anyone else!
And just like that, she’s gone.
In the empty room I loop the band over my notebook and return it to my briefcase.
I believe her. I truly believe her. Whatever secrets she’s keeping, in my – highly professional – opinion she’ll never tell a soul…
BUY HERE
Sarah Mitchell grew up in Norfolk and studied law at Cambridge University. She practised as a barrister in London for nearly 20 years before turning to writing. Sarah and her husband now live in beautiful North Norfolk with three almost-grown-up children, an extremely affectionate dog and a horse called Joey. Her debut novel, THE LOST LETTERS, was inspired by her parents’ experiences in the Second World War and her desire to explore the heart-breaking impact of the war on women and children.
By contrast, THE COUPLE is a dark psychological thriller that twins themes of right and wrong with the age-old complication of an all-consuming past love. Her third novel, THE ENGLISH GIRL is a story inspired by an incredible true love story, a beautiful, sweeping tale of hope, courage and heart-breaking choices. Now, her fourth novel, LETTERS TO A STRANGER, explores themes of love, betrayal and redemption, through the eyes of young Ruby Summers who is forced to make an impossible decision when Italy joins the Second World War and her village turns against the love of her life.
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, Interviews, On Writing
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